Telling it Like it Is

Since I still cannot sort out the relationship of my husband's gg-grandfather to the widowed man his mother married long after his and his brothers' births (no father mentioned in the records), I was surprised when looking for my father's ancestors that sometimes the fathers of "hijos naturales" were mentioned (exposed?) in the records even when the father was married to someone else. I kind of suspect that in some cases a woman who had children out of wedlock had been impregnated by a married man and could not marry him until he was "free" ("viudo" after his previous wife died) to be made an honest woman of.

map of district of Jerez Zacatecas

I just posted a picture of a map of the district of Jerez Zacatecas which I got in 2003. Some of the old names have been changed but the information seems good. I posted it in the map section. This map was actually on the back of a T-shirt but it was clear and large enough for my old eyes to read.

Help on "hijo natural"

I have learned over the years doing family research is that certain words are used differently in different centuries and locales. For example, people who lived in remote areas without a resident priest didn't wait for one to show in order to "marry". The church did not see any reason to blame people for uniting and having children before seeing a priest for the church ritual. Hence the term "hijo natural" came into use. Once the locale has a resident priest the use of "hijo natural" disappears. I have seen the priests use "hijo ilegitimo" or "hijo bastardo" to identify the child whose parents failed to observe the "rules". I believe it is presumptuous to call a child a bastard if the "hijo natural" label is the result of a priest not being nearby. Some communities went longer than a year without the services of a priest.

I just tried to add an article about Isabel de Moctezuma's Will

I still don't see your article in the file section. Que pasa?

---- alfonsogonzalezg wrote:
>
I've just tried to upload an article about Isabel de Moctezuma's Will. I guess it's very interesting, but it doesn't appear now in the Files Section. Did I do something wrong?

Hijo Legitimo/Hijo Natural

I too have a case that has me wondering just what is Hijo Legitimo vs Hijo Natural:

My husband's great-great grandfather Ysac Cervantes gave as his father's name Encarnacion Cervantes in the baptism records of all his children and in his marriage record. This made it extremely difficult for me to find Ysac and Encarnacion. After backtracking and some help from Arturo, I discovered that the Cervantes name came from Ysac's mother Dorotea Cervantes who did not marry Encarnacion Talamantes until after Ysac's birth and that of his two brothers. Encarnacion and Dorotea were not married until July 10, 1839, three years after the birth of Ysac and six years after the birth of Ysac's brother Sotero. The Talamantes I believe were part Indian from Tlaltenango, and the Cerbantes' were espanoles from Encarnacion de Diaz.

Thank you

Thanks to everyone for all of the great definitions given when I asked for "Help-Ayuda"
this is what I learned.

Hijo espurio: hijo ilegítimo de padre desconocido (Bastardo) unknown father
Hijo ilegítimo: hijo de padres no casados entre sí, (i.e an affair)

Help

Can someone help me out with the following.
I am having a hard time reading a birth certificatea from mid 1800's, I was under the assumption "hijo Natural" is a child born to a single mom!

what is the difference between:

Films

I just went through the films for Zacatecas and wondered if there is a way to put the film numbers in order by catagory and sequence? It would help to keep us from entering duplicate film or batch numbers.

Open for discussion

Joseph, when I get into the Nuestros Ranchos site it acknowledges me by name unless I'm on a different computer then it asks me to sign in.. Does this site record or show how often we are actually into the Nuestros site? If it does then those who use the site would not have to do anything special and you would have a record of who has not used the site for the last year... or am I over simplifying it?

Puerto/Puesto/Puerta

Deena,

I also have had a question about Puerto vs. Puesto vs. Puerta.

On my husband's gggg-grandmother's (Maria Maxima Duron Reyes) birth record (can be viewed only in IGI-submitted by a member after 1991) her birth place is listed as Puerto del Marquez, Aguascalientes, 1792. I was able to obtain a copy of her original marriage record for 1814 on a microfilm for Rincon de Romos--"en la capilla del Rincon") and it says "originaria y vecina de la jurisdiction de Aguascalientes en el puesto del Maguei". She was 22 years old, putting her birth year at 1792. The groom (Patricio Martin) was living in the Hacienda de Pavellon, age 19.